Sunday, May 17, 2015

Hi, Just thought I'd drop a line to show a little bit of progress. Last week I started character sprites for the protaginist for an action game. He looked a bit Mortal Kombatesque and ended up scrapping it.Second design which isn't shown was a more modern setting, a throwback to my defunct XNA project that never got off the ground. It was going to be a throwback to River City Ransom where you fight a mad pastor of a megachurch who managed to lift a portion of a state into the sky gradually getting higher and higher, because he believes they'll be in Heaven once they die in space. It was a game where I mostly poke fun at right wing stereotypes, racists, republicans and the kind of a-holes that use Christianity and the Bible as an excuse to be smug stuck up SOBs that believe they're above being called out for doing wrong... Sorry, got off on a tangent there.It started to become more of a personal grudge of mine I'd LOVE to poke fun at, but I have to remember that this has to be more than just a civilian vs evil religious cult. Maybe I could do the bounty hunter angle. Since in his world, law enforcement has become some sparse that bounty hunting/mercenary became a big deal in that day and age.Geo's personality is cold, reckless, witty, and holds a grudge over the way he was treated in the past so he has a bit of a cynical demeanor. He desires to live a carefree life, but despises the kind of people who take advantage of others... like a mad pastor hell bent on sacrificing thousands of people in hopes of getting into heaven. His backstory gets darker, but I wont spoil it.He works for a former Spec Ops trainer who runs a small bounty hunting business with a techie, a unreliable female hunter with a hot streak. I have plans for the ending thanks to Suicide Squad influence. Geo hunt's small fry rednecks and KKK wannabes and turns them in for a decent profit... which made him more money than his day job. The mad pastor hunt will be his ticket into the big leagues, and a personal grudge he has to settle.OOH here is the design:

My re-re-redesign. And good timing since I was on a Contra kick lately watching some old vids. Hard Corps actually implemented alternate routes, which will also be a thing for this game since there are optional targets for you to hunt... with some hidden targets as well. I also like the animated look. Remember this sprite is enlarged, so the real thing will be smaller... depending on the size of your monitor.Working for a former Spec Op member granted him access to his suit and weapon.Here's hoping I'll have a level done before the week is out.
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Sunday, May 3, 2015

I'm revamping act one to resemble a casino/theme park rather than a carnival. One thing I learned is that people see the carnival theme and suddenly shy away from wanting to give the game a chance... which is a shame, it's probably insecurity for the most part unless you have a dark tone to go along with it.

I was honestly no better until I reached my 30s and went back to the world of Nintendo and colorful graphics.

Sorry for the sudden lag, I tried to make the gifs just low enough for the more rural connections.I've been going back and re-evaluating the game, adding animations and changing stuff. While the game is just waiting for the greenlight over on Steam, I'm sort of stuck on where to put this game.Even for stand alone PC, there are few places that allow me to publish without insane thresholds (Desura) or low file size game submission. Other distributors outright rejected the game, it seems there isn't much in the way for self-publish for a HTML5 game unless you're willing to sacrifice getting some kind of compensation for years of hard work.This game with all the effects and animations won't function on the Wii U I'm afraid. HTML5 support on a home console is still in it's infancy and probably won't change anytime soon... the controls just a tad more complex for smartphone (No way in hell am I putting this on Android though)... though if I had the money to get a mac I could fit the bill for an app store fee I'd be all over iTunes. My other option is to rebuild the game from scratch on another engine... which I'd rather start a new project entirely. In a way, I feel stuck. Perhaps I should seek out a publisher that's interested in this game... maybe that's what I need to do. Any thoughts?------------------------------------------------In other news... Now for those who follow, I know I made promises on games that haven't gotten off the ground. Dodge-Fu, High School Reunion horror game, etc. Plans for Youtube and Twitch? Still afraid of the unknown, I get discouraged easily when plans fall though... and the weird feeling of being a 30 something male doing youtube commentary about the gaming industry. You can blame that on being raised in a conservative hive-mind world where you have to reach certain milestones while shunning any form of creativity because it doesn't pay the bills.Truth is, I forget to gauge the time and energy to learn a new engine and the cost of developing for other platforms. I'm still a Wii U dev, but haven't produced anything in months because my projects wouldn't work with the current engine I'm using and I haven't been able to afford a dev kit. I was hanging with my friends for days on end on Destiny and when back to FFXIV in time for Heavensward, but now I've found myself with free time to think things were put in perspective.Real life I have a full time job, but every penny goes towards bills, food, my pets, rent, and debts... the price of going to college without that fancy job at the end really puts a damper on saving money... lately it's been even more so thanks to unexpected personal events.What does this have to do with anything? Well, I just haven't decided on if I should raise money for my projects... I was expecting Baxter's Adventure to be on Steam to help fund the Wii U stuff, but as you can see that isn't going to happen anytime soon. Porting this game as it is won't suffice either, it's too big and resource demanding.However, I'm willing to give it a chance on NEW projects. I have a plan to start a GoFundMe campaign, a seemingly inexpensive one... to get the funds needed for 3 Wii U projects. I'm not going to do Kickstarter, I don't have the means to reward backers and it's more for small team projects than solo ventures like GGWorks.I'm looking at doing 2-3 prototypes in Construct 2, real simplistic, possibly retro/arcade themed games of long forgotten franchises.-A "Shatterhand" themed game that takes bits from Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania and the first TMNT game. Think of a faster paced "Bad Dudes"-Zelda themed dungeon crawler with a female protagonist, it'll feel like Link's Awkening and Adventure of Link-Adventure Island or a remastered port of Baxter's Pocket VentureThese will act like mini trailers of what to expect for the Wii-U.

With the three prototypes combined, I am Captia... *ahem* I mean this will give donators and idea of what to expect for the Wii U gaming console. I'll work on one at a time, and place them on the E-Shop. I know there is a market for these games, even though Wii U has the smallest install base, it's perfect for me since I'm one person and not a team of people. And the fans of the console really appreciate indies and the niche games rarely found on other platforms.The funds would cover: Dev kits (possibly both for future Unity projects, my biggest goal is to learn Unity if I ever get to quit my day job haha.) music and sound for the games, overhead (I'd like to own my own studio away from home.) production costs for both games and software for youtube (better quality trailers so I'm not using movie maker and bandicam) Software and Dev kits are the biggest expenses obviously, and get top priority and music for royalty free websites. There are a large amount of chiptune artists out there who make great music just begging to be used!As far as incentives, I'll work on that. I'll start with inexpensive stuff like t-shirts and such.--------------------------------------I have considered Patreon, not sure if I should do that since I'm not really a content creator with a well established fanbase.Anyway, what do you think?-